RE:RE:Knowing when to sellNice post Marketsense. Great to see that you are still around.
Your comment about ego and being reluctant to accept a loss is a very common characteriztic that I found in my years and especially as a financial advisor.
The way I dealt with it with clients was to say the decision to sell or not has nothing to do with the price that you bought it for (except for the possible tax consequences). The question you should be asking yourself is "Where is the best place to put my money right now?" If the answer is to hold then so be it. If the answer is that there is a better place to put this money then sell. Take your lumps and move on.
I have always found that the more you take emotion/ego out of investment decisions and the more prgamatic you are, the better investment decisions you will make and the more successful you will be.
I remember back in 2008 when the market was fluctuating wildly from one day to the next, I had a client call just before the market close one day and told me to sell everything. The market was down about 3% that day. My response to him was "Why don't you sleep on this and if tomorrow you still want to sell call me first thing in the morning and I will sell you out". The next day the market gapped up 5% and he called me to say thanks for making him stop and think as opposed to reacting to his emotions.
The other thing I often said to clients and was part of my approach to investing was to help them figure out how much money they really needed and then find the lowest risk way of achieving that objective. I used to tell clients that my job was like a quarterback - I wanted to get them into the end zone when they retired, not trying to kick a 50 yard field goal into swirling winds. Often people who end up having to kick the field goal were either/both greedy and not disciplined. The most important thing to remember is that the success of other people has absolutely no bearing on you so instead of comparing yourself to others, focus getting where you need to be and find the way that has the highest probability of you getting there.